Quality of life of inguinal hernia patients in Taiwan: The application of the hernia-specific quality of life assessment instrument
Journal
PLoS ONE
Journal Volume
12
Journal Issue
8
Date Issued
2017
Author(s)
Abstract
Background: With the development of prosthetic mesh and tension free techniques, the recurrence rate following inguinal hernia repair has been reduced, and hernia outcomes research should focus on post-operative quality of life and potential complications. Study design: A novel hernia quality of life assessment instrument, HERQL, was developed. The HERQL questionnaire comprises a 4-item summative pain score measuring pain and discomfort resulting from various strenuous activities. Symptomatic and functional domains, as well as post-operative satisfaction are evaluated as well. Results: A total of 386 HERQL surveys were completed by 183 patients with inguinal hernias. Internal consistency reliability of the summative pain score was satisfactory, with a Cronbach’s alpha of 0.85. Criterion validity was examined by concomitant assessment of the pain/discomfort and health impact subscales of the EQ-5D questionnaire, with substantial to moderate correlations. Pre-operative patients reported more severe hernia protrusion, more pain during mild to heavy exercise, and worse activity restriction and health impairment than the follow-up patients, indicating clinical validity. The conceptual structure of the HERQL demostrated the causal relationship between the formative symptomatic subscales and the reflective functional status indicators. Repeated measurement of the summative pain scores revealed an estimated time effect of -1.63, which was the rate of change in the summative pain score across the pre-operative, immediately postoperative, and follow-up 3-month periods suggesting the clinical responsiveness of the HERQL. Conclusions: This study will facilitate inguinal hernia outcomes research and enhance the quality of care for this common disease by providing a validated HERQL instrument with enhanced sensitivity. ? 2017 Huang et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
SDGs
Other Subjects
adult; Article; criterion related validity; disease severity; drug use; exercise; female; health impact assessment; heavy exercise; hernia quality of life assessment; human; inguinal hernia; internal consistency; limited mobility; major clinical study; male; middle aged; pain; patient satisfaction; quality of life; quality of life assessment; surgical mesh; Taiwan; treatment response; validation study; aged; inguinal hernia; pathophysiology; pilot study; questionnaire; Aged; Female; Hernia, Inguinal; Humans; Male; Middle Aged; Pilot Projects; Quality of Life; Surveys and Questionnaires; Taiwan
Type
journal article